The degree of automation in wind turbines is increasing continuously. In addition to the actual system control, monitoring and networking play important roles. Many control suppliers that offer conventional controllers for wind turbines are reaching their performance limits.

The solution lies in an automation system that is essentially based on a scientific approach, integrating the required measuring equipment in a standard control architecture. Scientific Automation from Beckhoff represents a combination of high performance Industrial or Embedded PCs, the highly deterministic EtherCAT fieldbus system and intelligent software. These components are also required for automating modern wind turbines.

Wind turbine manufacturers want to use the same system for control tasks, monitoring, grid synchronisation and system-wide communication. Just thinking of the complex Condition Monitoring algorithms which are to be processed on the controller, it becomes clear that it makes sense to use multi-core CPUs. With the new CX2000 series from Beckhoff, such powerful CPUs are now available in the Embedded PC format preferred by wind turbine manufacturers.

Take note

The degree of automation in wind turbines is increasing.

Wind turbine manufacturers want to use the same system for control tasks, monitoring, grid synchronisation and system-wide communication.

Scientific automation enables the integration of engineering findings in the automation of wind turbines beyond the scope of conventional controllers.